1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally pertains to the field of electronic gaming. More particularly, the present invention relates to electronic games of chance where the skill and/or knowledge of the player has no effect upon the outcome of the game.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic games are popular forms of entertainment the world over. Some of these games enable wagers to be placed on the outcome of the game and a payout to be made based upon predetermined odds. Horse, dog and auto racing are but a few examples of sports on which wagering is commonplace. Traditionally, however, players rely upon their knowledge of the sport, the perceived strengths and weaknesses of individual entrants in the races and hunches to select the entrant on which to place a wager. Some electronic games drawn to simulating such races rely upon historical information and aim to provide the player with the same information he or she would have had if that person had physically attended the actual race. An example of such an electronic game is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,259. However, such a gaming model is believed to be rather inflexible and inherently limited, in that the historical information must be collected, properly formatted, stored and presented to the player before any game can begin. This is believed to be an expensive and slow process that may prove to be unduly burdensome to the game owner and/or operator. Some localities, moreover, do not allow gaming activities that draw in any measure upon the skill and/or knowledge of the player.